The water heater war heats up with a $60 million lawsuit by Reliance Home Comfort against National Home Services for unfair practices.

Reliance Comfort LP, which has rented water heaters to Ontario consumers for 40 years, is suing a newer rival, National Home Services, for $60 million for allegedly using unfair practices to persuade customers to switch.

National, a subsidiary of TSX-listed Just Energy Group Inc., is contravening the provincial Consumer Protection Act and the federal Competition Act, Reliance alleges in its lawsuit claiming $60 million in damages. The charges have yet to be proven in court.

“They represent themselves as Reliance, the city or a government agency. It’s important that customers get the right information and aren’t deceived.”

In a news release, Reliance cited media reports stating that the Ontario consumer ministry had received 52 complaints about National’s practices in the first 10 months of the year.

“That information is false,” said Gord Potter, chief operating officer of National Home Services.

“I can confirm we have received a small number of consumer complaints from the consumer ministry this year.”

Water heaters are a huge issue for the consumer ministry. Spokesman Stephen Puddister said the ministry had received 120 written complaints about National in the first 10 months of this year.

In 2011, the ministry had 2,518 complaints and inquiries about water heater rentals and removals – second only to collection agencies.

Slinger agreed there were many companies going door to door trying to induce people to replace water heaters. But National was the biggest rival and generated the most complaints among Reliance customers.

Last June, the Competition Bureau started an investigation into Reliance’s requirement that residential clients get a removal reference number when replacing water heaters. It said this was possibly anti-competitive.

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